GF1 vs E-pl2

I would welcome anyone's help....
I am about to purchase a micro 4 thirds. After careful consideration I chose the GF1 - however I am having real difficulty getting hold of one.
That has led me to look at the E-PL2!

I want to be able to use bulb mode...i defo need to be able to use remote shutter release... confused as some review of e-pl2 say it has no bulb?

Should i keep looking for the GF1 or do you think the e-pl2 is a good compromise?

also. is there a similar fast pancake lense for e-pl2? -or can the panasonic 20mm f1.7 be attached with no extra converter

I recently made a similar decision to you. However I opted for the E-PL2. I also purchased the Panasonic Lumix 20mm f1.7 lens.

I can confirm that the Panasonic lens works brilliantly on the Olympus body without any adaptor. They system is designed to work across brands and it does this very well. You can even update the Panasonic lens firmware though the Olympus body's update procedure.

I opted for the Olympus E-PL2 over the GF1 or GF2 for a few reasons (in order of priority):

1. The E-PL2 has an image stabiliser built into the body so all lenses can take advantage of it. I've been able to use the Lumix 20mm lens and shoot 1/8 or 1/10, f1.7, ISO640 and get fanstastic low light results. I can't stress enough how useful I found the IS while I was on holiday and taking indoor evening shots.

2. If you want to use an Electronic View Finder in the future, currently the one available for the E-PL2 is best in class, a bit expensive though so I haven't bought it yet.

3. The kit lens for the E-PL2 is really very good. Nice and sharp and very light and compact. I think Olympus beats Panasonic on kit lens at the moment.

3. I read some reviews which did detailed image comparisons between the GF2 and E-PL2 and I prefered the look of the E-PL2 images. Entirely subjective and I'm sure others will prefer the other.

I've been doing a little reading into shutter releases and there are a number of cheap generic brand releases that apparently work fine on the E-PL2. I suggest searching some forums as there are plenty of posts recommending releases that can be found for $15 on ebay.

Both bodies are excellent choices. Definitely get the Lumix 20mm f1.7 lens. The image stabilisation of the Olympus swayed it for me.

thats for all the feedback much appreciated
i think the ep-l2 and 1.7 20mm will be what i may opt for
in term sof remote shutter release and having option of also being a flash trigger i have heard good reports on

I am currently wondering which of these to take on a trip to Italy. I am taking several cameras and lenses (DSLR and M4/3) and have both EPL2 and GF1 but only one will make the trip. I like the size of the GF1 but the external viewfinder is much better on the EPL2. I will be bringing the 20mm 1.7 and 40-150 Olympus lens along. I am probably leaning more towards the EPL2 but I think I need to truly compare size and weight of cameras and chargers to decide.

The epl-2 has more features then the GF-1. So if low light no flash photography is important, the epl-2 is much better at is. And mated with the 20 1.7 it makes shoot down at 1/6 shutter pretty simple with the ibis.

Also if you ever decide to get into flash photography. The epl-2 does have the wireless ttl master ability, which make it more versatile.

And if you are not a RAW shooter, the jpeg out of the olympus are just great.

And you can bulb the epl-2 upto 8 min. Here is the spec link, look at shutter.

You will not need a wireless flash trigger. The in camera flash work just for wireless ttl triggering of a dedicated flash like a metz 44 AF-1. You can just get a wireless shutter release form yongnuo on ebay and save some money.